HIF, K-5 II + FA*400/5.6 (1 img)

brandrx · Jul 24, 2013

This is not all that good but I am proud of it anyway because I caught the danged thing in flight while handholding and autofocusing using Expanded Area AF.

K-5 + FA*400/5.6, TAv, f8, 1/400s, IS80, SR = On.

Male Rufous hummingbird.

Cheers.

Ron

--
Ron - 'We don't have time to go take pics this afternoon Carl.'
Carl - 'What do you mean? It will only take 1/1000s.'
'Keep your eyes looking forward. However, glance back now and then to see where you've come from. It will put a smile on your face.' ~ brandrx

MightyMike · Jul 24, 2013

Well done Ron!

britcam · Jul 24, 2013

brandrx said:
brandrx wrote:

This is not all that good but I am proud of it anyway because I caught the danged thing in flight while handholding and autofocusing using Expanded Area AF.

K-5 + FA*400/5.6, TAv, f8, 1/400s, IS80, SR = On.

Male Rufous hummingbird.

Cheers.

Ron

--
Ron - 'We don't have time to go take pics this afternoon Carl.'
Carl - 'What do you mean? It will only take 1/1000s.'
'Keep your eyes looking forward. However, glance back now and then to see where you've come from. It will put a smile on your face.' ~ brandrx

In fact I rather think its a lesson to us all in how sound technique, patience, perseverance, and a proper working knowledge of one's equipment pays off. Colour, movement, composition - its all there, and a super photo ... anyone would be immensely proud!

Incidentally I took your advice on board from a previous post, and due to arrive in a few days time is a lovely (excellent ++, almost mint) FA 300 f4.5, with original box, paperwork, pouch, & caps. I could have gone the DA 300 route, but there is something special about the FA ..., quite apart from TC options...

--
Kind regards
britcam

brandrx · Jul 24, 2013

britcam said:
britcam wrote:

britcam said:
In fact I rather think its a lesson to us all in how sound technique, patience, perseverance, and a proper working knowledge of one's equipment pays off. Colour, movement, composition - its all there, and a super photo ... anyone would be immensely proud!

Thanks britcam.

britcam said:
Incidentally I took your advice on board from a previous post, and due to arrive in a few days time is a lovely (excellent ++, almost mint) FA 300 f4.5, with original box, paperwork, pouch, & caps. I could have gone the DA 300 route, but there is something special about the FA ..., quite apart from TC options...

I am sure you will be pleased with the FA*300/4.5 lens. Do you already have a teleconverter to use with it? Looking forward to see what you can do with it.

Cheers.

Ron

britcam · Jul 25, 2013

brandrx said:
brandrx wrote:

brandrx said:

ptions...

Click to expand...

I am sure you will be pleased with the FA*300/4.5 lens. Do you already have a teleconverter to use with it? Looking forward to see what you can do with it.

Cheers.

Ron

leopold · Jul 25, 2013

britcam said:
britcam wrote:

britcam said:

brandrx wrote:

britcam said:

ptions...

Click to expand...

I am sure you will be pleased with the FA*300/4.5 lens. Do you already have a teleconverter to use with it? Looking forward to see what you can do with it.

Cheers.

Ron

Click to expand...

leopold · Jul 25, 2013

That's a great shot considering you're technique!

You're getting very good at this!

britcam · Jul 25, 2013

That is the thing - more compact size, @ f4.5 fast enough for the K5IIs sensor, and as I understand it, much the same optical performance as the DA 300.

But it is inevitably a waiting game - nice examples of this lens don't come along every day ... and the ones that do show the usual signs of fairly heavy use - paint chips & scratches. Although I have always used long lenses hand held, I may try & get hold of a Canon tripod mount to balance up the setup if I start spending serious early morning time on bird watch with my friend - she acquired a D7100 yesterday - so the Pentax pressure is on!
--
Kind regards
britcam

FrancW · Jul 25, 2013

very nicely done!

christopherbarran · Jul 25, 2013

Great shot. I would so happy to get a capture like this.

brandrx · Jul 25, 2013

britcam said:
britcam wrote:

That is the thing - more compact size, @ f4.5 fast enough for the K5IIs sensor, and as I understand it, much the same optical performance as the DA 300.

But it is inevitably a waiting game - nice examples of this lens don't come along every day ... and the ones that do show the usual signs of fairly heavy use - paint chips & scratches. Although I have always used long lenses hand held, I may try & get hold of a Canon tripod mount to balance up the setup if I start spending serious early morning time on bird watch with my friend - she acquired a D7100 yesterday - so the Pentax pressure is on!

Here is just a bit of info for you. I bought the Canon tripod mount (black version) from ebay. I used it for awhile but then I decided to see if the tripod mount from my Tamron SP 80-200mm f2.8 Adaptall 2 would work. It works much better on the FA*300/4.5 so I swapped them, Canon tripod mount goes to Tamron 80-200/2.8 and Tamron 80-200/2.8 tripod mount goes to FA*300/4.5 lens. I know it will be very hard to find just the tripod mount from a Tamron 80-200/2.8 Adaptall 2 lens but the info is worth having just in case you ever do find one.

Good luck.

Ron

Jenna B · Jul 25, 2013

Not that good???!

Pffft, it's awesome! I love it! :-D

Thanks for posting, look forward to more in-motion shots of these birds!

brandrx · Jul 25, 2013

Jenna B said:
Jenna B wrote:

Not that good???!

Hi Jenna,

Well, I was set up to shoot at something else when this guy came around. He was at about 20 feet (6 meters) from me. My ISO of 80 was too low, my shutter speed was too slow, and the image ended up being very, very dark because of the lighting. I also had to make a massive crop. If you look close at the final image you can see a dark line around the edges of the hummer and you can also see excessive halos. These are due to processing way in excess of what I would normally have to do. For example, I had to raise the shadows about ten times more than I would in one of my normal images. So, in a nutshell, the 10x8 inch print is not acceptable to me. However, the print will be fine to give to my grandnephew or grandneice for their collection.

Jenna B said:
Pffft, it's awesome! I love it! :-D

Thanks.

Jenna B said:
Thanks for posting, look forward to more in-motion shots of these birds!

I probably won't be doing many more that is autofocused and handheld. I will just continue to capture them in-motion using a tripod and catch-in-focusing.

Cheers.

Ron

Jenna B · Jul 25, 2013

brandrx said:
brandrx wrote:

brandrx said:

Jenna B wrote:

Not that good???!

Click to expand...

Hi Jenna,

Well, I was set up to shoot at something else when this guy came around. He was at about 20 feet (6 meters) from me. My ISO of 80 was too low, my shutter speed was too slow, and the image ended up being very, very dark because of the lighting. I also had to make a massive crop. If you look close at the final image you can see a dark line around the edges of the hummer and you can also see excessive halos. These are due to processing way in excess of what I would normally have to do. For example, I had to raise the shadows about ten times more than I would in one of my normal images. So, in a nutshell, the 10x8 inch print is not acceptable to me. However, the print will be fine to give to my grandnephew or grandneice for their collection.

brandrx said:

Pffft, it's awesome! I love it! :-D

Click to expand...

Thanks.

brandrx said:

Thanks for posting, look forward to more in-motion shots of these birds!

Click to expand...

I probably won't be doing many more that is autofocused and handheld. I will just continue to capture them in-motion using a tripod and catch-in-focusing.

Cheers.

Ron

brandrx · Jul 25, 2013

Jenna B said:
Jenna B wrote:

Jenna B said:

brandrx wrote:

Jenna B said:

Jenna B wrote:

Not that good???!

Click to expand...

Hi Jenna,

Well, I was set up to shoot at something else when this guy came around. He was at about 20 feet (6 meters) from me. My ISO of 80 was too low, my shutter speed was too slow, and the image ended up being very, very dark because of the lighting. I also had to make a massive crop. If you look close at the final image you can see a dark line around the edges of the hummer and you can also see excessive halos. These are due to processing way in excess of what I would normally have to do. For example, I had to raise the shadows about ten times more than I would in one of my normal images. So, in a nutshell, the 10x8 inch print is not acceptable to me. However, the print will be fine to give to my grandnephew or grandneice for their collection.

Jenna B said:

Pffft, it's awesome! I love it! :-D

Click to expand...

Thanks.

Jenna B said:

Thanks for posting, look forward to more in-motion shots of these birds!

Click to expand...

I probably won't be doing many more that is autofocused and handheld. I will just continue to capture them in-motion using a tripod and catch-in-focusing.

Click to expand...

I'm just really impressed a the angle the bird is at, the movement, the focus around the head and body etc - I've tried to get flies a few times in the same way, which is tough as they are usually in the shade and fly about a lot - never have I been able to get one so clear and a hummingbird isn't hugely bigger, so to me it's an impressive capture!

Have you posted any other BIF shots for hummingbirds anywhere?

Jenna,

I don't have a gallery. I just post these kinds of humminbird in flight shots in this forum as I have been doing for the last 7 or 8 years. I usually leave my images on my site for about a year before I delete them so looking back for my shots you will usually find that I have deleted them. A lot of the time I am experimenting with different lenses to see which ones work best for capturing these little critters in flight.

All I can say right now is to keep an eye out for my threads about hummingbirds in the future.

Cheers.

Ron

Jenna B · Jul 25, 2013

brandrx said:
brandrx wrote:

brandrx said:
Jenna,

I don't have a gallery. I just post these kinds of humminbird in flight shots in this forum as I have been doing for the last 7 or 8 years. I usually leave my images on my site for about a year before I delete them so looking back for my shots you will usually find that I have deleted them. A lot of the time I am experimenting with different lenses to see which ones work best for capturing these little critters in flight.

All I can say right now is to keep an eye out for my threads about hummingbirds in the future.

Cheers.

Ron

brandrx · Jul 25, 2013

Jenna B said:
Jenna B wrote:

Jenna B said:

brandrx wrote:

Jenna,

I don't have a gallery. I just post these kinds of humminbird in flight shots in this forum as I have been doing for the last 7 or 8 years. I usually leave my images on my site for about a year before I delete them so looking back for my shots you will usually find that I have deleted them. A lot of the time I am experimenting with different lenses to see which ones work best for capturing these little critters in flight.

All I can say right now is to keep an eye out for my threads about hummingbirds in the future.

Click to expand...

Will keep me eyes peeled Ron, thanks!

Here are two closeups that you might enjoy.

Cheers.

Ron

--
Ron - 'We don't have time to go take pics this afternoon Carl.'
Carl - 'What do you mean? It will only take 1/1000s.'
'Keep your eyes looking forward. However, glance back now and then to see where you've come from. It will put a smile on your face.' ~ brandrx

Jenna B · Jul 25, 2013

...just wow! Such a small creature and so much detail, fantastic! Bet you needed some really good light for that?!

Thanks Ron! :-D

SanMat · Jul 25, 2013

Hi Ron,

I like it.

I may have asked this before about using the back (focusing) button for these type of shots (instead of having the shutter as both shutter and focus button simultaneously) - I'm a bit curious how much better (if at all) the new expanded area focus system works when you separate the focus operation from the shutter release button (when using AF.C) [and why am I really asking? - still making up my mind about pulling the trigger on K5 IIs]

On the Nikon side my experience is that it does make a significant difference for accuracy, so I've gone exclusively to back-button focusing, and let the AF system just keep focusing independently of whatever the shutter is doing. The back focus button on the Pentax is unfortunately much less pronounced (would be nice if it was farther up on the right side of the camera, away from anything else), but would seem to be a way to eke out a bit more focusing speed/accuracy when doing continuous focus mode. HB shots would be a good example.

Curious your thoughts.

Regards,

Pete

P.S. This is one of my favorites using AF.C with back button focusing only.

brandrx · Jul 27, 2013

SanMat said:
SanMat wrote:

Hi Ron,

Hi Pete,

SanMat said:
I like it.

Thanks. it was pure luck. I would not normally try to catch these like this using handheld and autofocusing. It is too much work for me. I would rather do catch-in-focusing from a tripod and using a locking wired remote.

SanMat said:
I may have asked this before about using the back (focusing) button for these type of shots (instead of having the shutter as both shutter and focus button simultaneously) - I'm a bit curious how much better (if at all) the new expanded area focus system works when you separate the focus operation from the shutter release button (when using AF.C) [and why am I really asking? - still making up my mind about pulling the trigger on K5 IIs]

I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time and I have tried what you suggest many times before with Pentax cameras. For me, it just does not work well, expecially how I have to hold the camera with my thumb on the AF button and my finger on the shutter button. It is very, very awkward for me. So, I haven't even attempted it with my K-5 II.

As far as the Expanded Area AF goes, it is a nice little addition that has been made to the current Pentax cameras but IMO it is nothing super special. Pentax cameras still leave a lot to be desired when it comes to AF-C tracking of birds in flight. Other than AF-C tracking, Pentax K-5 II / K-5 IIs are top-notch. I stay locked in to Pentax for three main reasons: (1) The amount and quality of lenses that I own. (2) Catch-in-focusing. (3) Image quality.

You've waited this long already, I suggest that before you pull the trigger for a K-5 IIs, you wait for a couple more months to see what comes in September.

Cheers.

Ron

HIF, K-5 II + FA*400/5.6 (1 img)

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